Hello,

wondering if anyone can give me some advice on options for a rainwater drain on the side of my house.

The set-up when we got the house, was that the downpipe from the gutters went into a (wooden) rainwater butt. A hosepipe was then connected to the overflow of the butt and fed under some decking nearby. Upon lifting the decking, I can see that the hose pipe goes into the neck of an old clay drainage pipe.
The combination of a rotting wooden butt next to a wall of the house; a hosepipe being used to effectively drain the roof of the house; and suspicious damp problems have led me to think this needs some attention.

I was therefore hoping to extend the drainpipe to just above ground level, and fit a hopper and trap into the ground for it to empty into, which would then be linked to the existing drainage system.

The problem is, that after digging down against the side of the house, I have discovered that the concrete foundations/footings are only four bricks below the damp proof course. So I only have about 2 bricks/6 inches of height to play with.
Has anyone got any advice on what I can do?

Can I fit a drain without a trap (we have combined rainwater and fouwater drainage)? Are there any ultra compact traps that I can use? Have I any other options?

Thanks
Richard

Kinda got lost there somewhere, whats the footings, foundations and damp course got to do with the problem ??

If you run a 110mm underground plastic pipe into the main drain then you will need a trap/gully at the down pipe end.

The alternative is to dig a soakaway down the garden and run the rainwater into that.

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Sorry, just read it back and I think I waffled on a bit too much.

I need to fit an underground drain beneath a drain pipe bolted to the side of the house.
The problem is I only have about 6 inches of depth between ground level and the top of the foundations/footings, which extend by about a foot from the hosue wall.
As such, I can't dig deep enough to fit a gully, trap or much else besides a untrapped pipe with a 90dg bend at the base of the drainpipe.

I was just wondering if anyone has any suggestions to get round this.

The soil around the house is clay which goes very very deep as far as I can tell, so I don't think a soakaway/natural drainage would work.

A soakaway would work ok, unless the ground is waterlogged, high table etc.

See thread below

http://www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk/forum ... 17867.html

You could get the gully in reasonably tight, by chipping away an edge of the footings, then set the down pipe with a couple of bends.

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Thanks for the advice. I'll get some measurements and see whether I can get a gully a bit closer to the wall and pipe.

Am just worried about having the drain pipe sticking out too far from the wall. Could I run the downpipe straight down into some 82mm pipe in the ground, and then connect that into the back of the gully instead?

If you set the gully as close as possible, and you can chip a bit out of the concrete, you could build a curb back to the wall and infill with concrete, all you would need then is a shoe on the down pipe.

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Ahhh, I see what your saying.
Thanks for the help.